Wide agreement but different priorities for library trustee candidates

Keeping the library relevant in the digital age, hiring a new library director, and providing equal access were some of the issues discussed at a recent candidates forum for the Board of Trustees of the Public Library of Brookline.

The forum was held earlier this month at Town Hall, and the election will be held on April 30.

This year, there are five candidates for four spots.

Michael Burstein, Jennifer Rees, and Judith Vanderkay are the incumbents, while Roberta Winitzer will not be seeking reelection. The other candidates are Puja Mehta, who ran unsuccessfully for the same position last year, and Magdalene Moran.

For the most part, the candidates agreed on many of the issues discussed during the short forum, but they each presented their priorities for the campaign.

Moran, a Fuller Street resident, moved to Brookline 15 years ago to pursue a PhD at Harvard Medical School. She now lives in the Coolidge Corner area with her husband and 5-year-old son.

She said she has been volunteering for almost a year on the trustees’ Programming Committee, where she has helped execute the first programming aimed at people in their 20s and 30s, she said, such as the recent Oscar Night event.

“It’s a group that’s often underrepresented at the library,” she said.

With the advent of digital resources, Moran said she would promote access to resources and strive to narrow the digital divide.

Vanderkay is a 30-year resident of Brookline, and said she has experience in the business and nonprofit world.

“We’re going to be looking for a new library director, and I think my experience hiring executives in the nonprofit sector will be useful to the trustees,” she said.

All of the candidates mentioned that they would likely be tasked with finding a replacement for Chuck Flaherty, the director of the Brookline Library, who is expected to retire in the next few years.

Mehta ran last year for the Board of Trustees but lost to current member Kristen Uekermann. She currently works at the State House in the office of State Sen. Karen E. Spilka as the district and constituent services director.

Mehta spoke about the library saving her career after she discovered she was dyslexic. By finding, and using, computer software that highlighted words and provided audio, she was able to finish law school.

“That type of accessibility is very important,” she said.

Mehta said the move to digital has kept some people away from the library.

“Are we becoming no longer relevant because people aren’t going to paper books, they’re going to Amazon?” she asked.

Mehta said the library should look at fundraising as a possible way to get more electronic devices in the branches. She is campaigning on more access to the library, finding ways to increase funding for the library, and staying relevant in the digital age.

Page 2 of 3 - Jennifer Rees has been a Brookline resident for 11 years. She said she frequents the Coolidge Corner Branch, which she calls her “second home.” She’s an interior designer and she works for an architectural firm in Boston.

Rees said libraries are changing, and becoming more community centers.

“They’re a place where people can come together and learn and connect and share with each other,” she said.

She said one of her missions would be to get the Coolidge Corner Branch up to the same level as the Main Library on Washington Street and the Putterham Branch.

“Coolidge Corner is long overdue,” she said.

Burstein is running for a fourth term. He touted his experience on the board, and some of the advances of the library since he’s been a trustee, such as the jump in circulation by 38 percent. He has lived in Brookline for roughly 18 years, and is married with two twin 3-year-old daughters.

“I feel I have a demonstrated record of accomplishment as a library trustee,” said Burstein.

He has had the closest relationship with the summer Sundays program, running on the issue in 2004, and pushing it forward once he was elected.

“This is…a critical time for the library,” he said. “We are probably going…to have to select a new library director and that’s going to require the experience and knowledge of how the library works.”

He said he’s also helped implement a new circulation system that has made checking out books much faster.

Finally, he said he oversaw renovations of the Putterham and Coolidge Corner branches, including the installation of solar panels at the Putterham location.

Sean Lynn Jones, a member of the Advisory Committee who works in publishing, asked the candidates about the future of printed materials in the digital age, and what some of the challenges will be for the library to adjust to the changing times.

Moran said it would largely depend on what the big six publishers — Hachette, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group/Macmillan, Penguin Group, HarperCollins, Random House and Simon & Schuster — do.

“Four of the six don’t have agreements with libraries,” she said. “Sorting that out is going to be a huge question.”

She also said a challenge will be embracing digital media while trying to prevent economic disparity.

“How do you make it so that you move to e-books and you don’t just allow the people who have the money to buy e-readers access to that content?” she asked.

Vanderkay said the solution would be made in conjunction with the publishing industry.

Rees said “books are not going away any time soon,” and pointed to the growing circulation numbers in Brookline as proof.

Page 3 of 3 - Burstein, a science fiction writer, said the library would continue to get content into people’s hands the way they want it.

“We do have a population that wants print books and CDs and we provide those,” he said.